Many people use pen and paper instead of a computer to write short texts, particularly notes of telephone conversations and meetings. The reason may be that no computer is available, that both hands are needed to efficiently enter text by way of a computer keyboard, or that it takes a long time to start the right program in the computer. Even if the notes are written on a sheet of paper, people often wish to input certain parts of them to a computer, for example a note about a meeting into a digital calendar or an address into a digital address book.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,852,434 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,477,012 disclose a device enabling a user to input handwritten and hand-drawn information to a computer while the information is being written/drawn on the writing surface. The device comprises a writing surface, on which are arranged a position code cording X-Y coordinates and a special pen with a writing point for writing or drawing on the writing surface. Moreover, the pen has a light source for illuminating the position code and a CCD sensor for receiving the light reflected by the position code. The position information received by the CCD sensor is sent to a computer for processing. This device appears to require a computer to be started and a certain program to be opened before the writing on the writing surface can begin.
Similar devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,506, U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,736, U.S. Pat. No. 5,652,412 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,147.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,932,863 discloses how a user can access an electronic medium by reading, using a device, a symbol, code or the like in a piece of printed matter, for instance a book. The device sends a signal with the read symbol to a control unit which executes a command corresponding to the symbol.